Tuesday, October 05, 2004

THE ONLY WAY TO IMPROVE THE WORLD

We have only one thoroughly effective way to make planet Earth a better place for all of us. We cannot improve our condition by marching up and down the square. Nor can we do so by complaining to our selected representatives. Nor even by voting. Not any longer. The only way is to boycott the sources of our swelling misery.

Megacorporations rule the world. They have achieved this unprecedented power with the oceans of money we have rendered unto them by consuming their products. They, not the politicians, control our lives. They decide who runs for elections. They approve the bills that pass to the president's signing table. They persuade the people how to act, how to dress, how to eat, how to travel, how to live, even how to think. They appear almost omnipotent in their global reach, but they are vulnerable. Their weakness is their dependency on the very individuals from whom they have derived their supreme wealth and power--us.

We, the people, have more than inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We have the power to make the world go round as we see fit. If we want universal healthcare for everybody, we can have it. If we want a guaranteed living wage for all workers, we can have it. If we want free high quality education for everyone from birth to death, we can have it. We are politically omnipotent. The power is in our hands, rather, in our wallets.

All we have to do is deny ourselves, deny ourselves the things we do not need, such as extra food and clothes and cars and fuel and on and on... If we deny ourselves unnecessary and useless things and stick to our principles, then if we inform the corporate powers of what we are doing and that we want a better world, they will fall on their knees before us. They will beg us to tell them how they can help to assure our lives, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness.

Of course it will be difficult. It was difficult for the followers of Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez. But look what they accomplished for their people. Self-denial is not easy but it is virtuous. Nothing worthwhile is easy. By self-sacrifice we will become stronger, leaner, tougher, united, and invincible against the plutocratic powers that tyrannize our world.

Before life on Earth becomes intolerable for everyone but the few castled super-rich, let us join by the thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, by the millions to take back our rights. This beautiful aqueous planet has always belonged to all of us great and small. Let us retrieve it once and for all time. The only action we need take is not aggressive, violent, nor destructive, but peaceful, passive, and empowering. Join me. I and many others have already begun. Boycott! Boycott for the good of everyone.